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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1h

I think the dropoff question is big. Critics were def mixed. But Swift is so massive a force now that I know tons of normal adult civilians who say, "Well, I should listen to it at least once." But also it's an easier listen than the past couple, at least in length and beats. So we'll see.

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1h

This is the thing one of my weirdest friends told me decades ago to explain why baseball was the greatest sport. "The only theoretically infinite game."

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 7h

So many! There's Monica, Maria, Barbara...

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

"Hurt" completed it, but it started quickly after the first American came out & just took a few years to spread, depending where & who you were. Rick Rubin knew that there had long been post-punk hipsters (like me) who were into the 50s-60s Man in Black, & wisely got Johnny to play to that.

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

A little history: www.theguardian.com/music/articl...

‘He’d turned into a weird old grandpa’: how Johnny Cash resurrected his career – and became an icon

In the early 90s, the Man in Black was unsigned, uncool and barely out of addiction. Releasing lost songs from those years that rank among Cash’s best, his son and bandmates explain how he came back a...

www.theguardian.com

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

That wasn't really the issue at the time: youtu.be/FWjjzPXO0wY?...

Johnny Cash - Song of the Patriot (Live) | The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1980)

YouTube video by Johnny Cash Fanatic

youtu.be

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

Oh yeah, has been for a loooong time. Just adding a little extra dimension to the conversation.

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

His early stuff was always cool in the underground, but people thought he went corny in the 70s and 80s. Mostly making Christian and retro recordings. There's a reason the American Recordings were such a comeback.

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah, if you think people think Johnny Cash is uncool, you must be very young. But also if you think people never thought that.

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

One of the few great blows for sanity in music court cases the past decade or so. (And of course a sad/funny self-own on Drake's part.)

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 1d

NEW: Federal judge dismisses Drake's defamation case against Kendrick Lamar storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The issue in this case is whether "Not Like Us" can reasonably be understood to convey as a factual matter that Drake is a pedophile or that he has engaged in sexual relations with minors. In light of the overall context in which the statements in the Recording were made, the Court holds that it cannot.

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 1d

Cash *was widely seen as washed-up/uncool from the mid-late 70s thru the 80s - making a lot of Christian records and retro covers albums. The Highwaymen helped after 85, but only American Recordings in 94 sealed the comeback. (Though rockabilly/punk/alt-country types kept the faith the whole way.)

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Reposted by Carl Wilson

Emissary Of Night | ليلى @diplomatofnight.com · 3d

Fascinating report just released by DropSite which reveals that David Frum, while working on a profile of an Israeli ambassador to the United Nations for the Atlantic, was also shadow-writing speeches for that same ambassador.

David Frum, Douglas Murray Secretly Drafted Speeches for Israeli Ambassador

Leaked emails from former Israeli UN Ambassador Ron Prosor show David Frum, Douglas Murray offering to write his speeches and a CNN producer fundraising for Israel’s Iron Dome during Israel’s 2014 war

www.dropsitenews.com

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 3d

He had some better moments sure

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 3d

It’s very weird to try to adjudicate a “fight” like this by claiming Frank Sinatra made bad music. Just say he was an asshole. (Also he didn’t fight his own fights, had Mafia goons do it for him.)

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 3d

Oh, I missed this the first time around! It's so great that you wrote about this scene.

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 3d

One last reminder: Tonight!

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 8d

I'm part of this event Tuesday (Oct 7) celebrating Jeff Weiss's new book WAITING FOR BRITNEY SPEARS, a memoir reckoning with his part in the L.A. gossip press in the 00s. It's at the Annex Hotel, 296 Brunswick, Toronto - panel starts at 7:30, followed by some live Britney covers! Please join us!

A poster for the Waiting for Britney Spears event Tues Oct 7 in Toronto at the Annex Hotel, doors at 6 pm, panel at 7:30 pm, featuring author Jeff Weiss in conversation with Natalie Harmsen (CBC) and Carl Wilson (Slate) - all three are pictured. Presented by Lore and Outtaline. $10

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 4d

Toronto! This is tomorrow (Tues) - the panel starts at 7:30 pm. Don't miss, Jeff's book is a blast, carrying you across four lanes of half-stoned 2000s nostalgia/loathing and ethical complicity at 105 mph with the stereo blasting and long-lens cameras flashing

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 8d

I'm part of this event Tuesday (Oct 7) celebrating Jeff Weiss's new book WAITING FOR BRITNEY SPEARS, a memoir reckoning with his part in the L.A. gossip press in the 00s. It's at the Annex Hotel, 296 Brunswick, Toronto - panel starts at 7:30, followed by some live Britney covers! Please join us!

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 4d

The 1D connection is a great one, tho, since Swift's link with Harry was such a big catalyst to fans combing her lyrics for "clues" - no doubt partly driven by mutual fans who were already doing so with their songs.

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 4d

Never claimed there was a Taylor Swift Year Zero. She was named after James Taylor, and confessional song goes back at least to that cohort of singer-songwriters (esp Joni). Fan frenzies of speculation over personal lives go back further. I just think Swift defined a particular current inflection.

Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

I'm so very glad you did! Fantastic. (Except that plodding Lumineers bit.)

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

Yes, cultural turns almost always would have happened anyway. It's still a big deal to the be the figure they hinge on. Ofc personal narrative was always *part of celebrity, but hip hop changed how it was used in music, then came the internet, & then Taylor mainstreamed it as a dominant mode. imho

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

For sure, she's huge in different ways to different people, which is the only way someone can be *this huge, all added up. But she's made parasociality and personal narrative an unconventionally big part of the music and marketing, so much so that it changed the norms in pop music.

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

The writer/lawyer overlap is *huge for fairly obvious reasons - I say as the child of a lawyer and a librarian. But my dad actually actively discouraged me from going to law school, because he thought it smothered his own creativity.

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

I talked about Taylor turning Shakespearean tragic heroines into Disney princesses in my Showgirl review - @lindsayzoladz.bsky.social takes that much further with this great plunge (heh) into Ophelia's place in pop culture. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/04/a...

In Taylor’s Version, Ophelia Has a Fairy-Tale Ending

www.nytimes.com

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Carl Wilson @carlzoilus.bsky.social · 5d

I guess part of the question is what percentage of Taylor Swift fans are very-online - given that the main fans are tweens to early 30s, I would say *lots.

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